This morning I asked my kids what I should write about in my blog this week. My 8 year old son Rylan says quite earnestly, "You should write about me!."
Slightly amused, I say, "Hmmm, I could write about you, but how will I relate it to running a marathon?"
Rylan responds with, "You could write about how I am good runner, because I am really fast."
In the "keeping it real" department, Rylan has just recently figured out that skipping is not the most efficient way to win a running race, so saying that he is really fast might be a bit of an over-statement. Rylan could be a good runner, but at this point and time, I wouldn't put it on his top 10 best attributes. But I am also not going to stomp all over his concept of self, so I tell him that talking about his fast running skills really doesn't require much explanation so maybe isn't the best topic for my blog.
This got me thinking. At what point in our lives do we start eliminating activities that we decide we are not good at? And what makes us think we are not good at something? When I was 8, I bet that I thought I was good at running, but for 20 years somewhere between the ages of 12 and 32, I decided that running was not for me. Now at 43 years old, running is such a huge part of my identity that I write weekly blogs about it. Why did I, as a child decide that I wasn't good at running? I actually think that it had everything to do with what Rylan said. He said he was a good runner. How did he know he was a good runner? He knew because he was really fast. At some point in my early adolescence, I decided I wasn't "fast" therefore, I wasn't "good" Many children come to this sort of simple conclusion, but it is actually quite surprising how many adults also equate running speed with running ability.
What I didn't know at 12, that I know now, is that being fast is completely relative. As with many other things in life, there will always be people ahead and there will always be people who are behind. The race is truly only with yourself. What "good" actually means is also up for interpretation. What are we using to measure what is good and what is not? Is it distance, speed, improvement, or just plain letting go of a sedentary lifestyle? Or is it just committment to the sport? 12 year old me didn't question what it means to be good or what it means to be fast, so I just stopped running. I have to wonder what Rylan will think of his running abilities in 5 years? I sure hope he doesn't let go of the idea that he is good.
I spent a lot of time this week thinking about how fast I am running. It seems everyone has theory on how fast your training runs should be to meet your goal time. The Running Room has guidelines, but then so do about a dozen other organizations, and none of them have the same target paces, but all of them subscribe to the theory that "fast" is not always "good." There are those who use heart rate and lactate thresholds to measure your optimal training paces,and then there are those who just use your last race and do some simple math. Since I haven't gone to the trouble to get my lactate threshold and VO2max measured, I am sort of stuck with doing some simple math calculations.
For my goal time of 4 hrs 30 minutes, some organizations say I should be running faster tempo runs and long runs, but my steady pace is fine. Others say, I need to slow down my long runs significantly (by a minute per kilometer in some cases) and speed up my tempo runs. The Running Room has the best interpretation of all. According to RR pace guidelines, I am actually on target for running a 4:15 marathon. Two other on-line calculators said my training is consistent with running a 4:30 marathon, while another said 4:45.Of course, anything can happen on race day, and these paces are just estimates, but what does a person do with all this conflicting information? Well, my plan is to stick with my steady run pace on Fridays (6:26/kilometer), try my best to increase my pace on tempo runs, and stick to a slower pace on my long runs. Also, participating in hill training and speed work should help with the increase my strength over all.
I put in 55 kilometers this week (a record for me!). Some hills, one tempo run (5:44 min/km), two steady pace runs(6:26 min/km) and one LSD run (26.7 km) (7:06 min/km). Next week is a drop down week, followed by another increase in distance.
The emphasis for my training is actually not what the title of this post suggests. It is not a desire to be fast, but in increasing my strength and ability to run for longer distances. This does not make me any less a good runner than a super fast sprinter . It just makes me a runner with a goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment